Billionaire George Soros has strong financial, honorary and personal ties to Columbia. Soros’s Open Society foundations have given $9,708,486 to Columbia University since 2000. $1,250,000 of this money went directly to the Columbia Journalism Review. The school also received an additional $1.63 million from the liberal Tides Foundation, which Soros funds. Soros also gave the 2004 commencement speech for Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. This makes Columbia the third most Soros-funded school in the world, and the second most in the United States.

Soros has contributed more than $400 million to colleges and universities around the world, including money to most prominent institutions in the United States. Here in the United States, Soros money provides the foundation for liberal organizations promoting everything from gay marriage and drug legalization to anti-death penalty strategies. While his charitable giving goes to liberal organizations with close ties to the Democratic Party, his political giving goes almost entirely to Democrats.

Soros also has personal ties to the school. He dated Columbia University philosophy student and former Brazilian soap opera actress Adriana Ferreyr for five years. Ferreyr sued Soros in August of 2011 for $50 million, for failing to buy her an apartment in Manhattan.

Soros crony Jeffrey D. Sachs is the director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. The Earth Institute focuses on climate change and the effects of humans on the environment, as well as on poverty and disease. According to The Earth Institute “about” page, “Human activity is straining the planet's resources, threatening the health of our environment and ability to thrive.”

The Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) is a research institute funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and affiliated with Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism until 2006. PEJ has been underwritten by the Pew Charitable Trusts, which have received at least $500,000 in Soros funding.

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